Success wears an Eraserhead T-shirt and applies its makeup in the dark with a liberal hand. Many conventional metrics of accomplishment do not apply to the Cure, 44 years in the game and now at the tail-end of a 44-date European tour. Currently an independent unsigned band finalising the release of their 14th studio album, this is their first time in Leeds for a decade – or so reckons crimson-lipped, smudge-eyed singer Robert Smith, the man whose dreams, nightmares, hopelessly romantic nature and peculiarly perky take on nihilism power this British institution. Helipads, velvet ropes, Bond themes: none of these outward signs of validation hold sway in the Cure’s universe.
This is a band who seem to be having their cake and eating it with remarkably few concessions. The Cure have a finished product, their first album of new songs in 14 years to offer to a new label as-is – and a devoted multi-generational audience ready to buy it and fill arenas worldwide.
